Joshua 21:1-22:20, Luke 20:1-26, Psalm 89:1-13, Proverbs 13:15-16
Today is the 20th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather to take the next step forward together. And our next step, leads us back into the Book of Joshua. We’ve been working our way through Joshua and…and entering the Promised Land and settling the Promised Land. And so, we pick up that story today. Joshua chapter 21 verse 1 through 22 verse 20, today.
Commentary:
Okay, let’s talk about sound biting. In our culture, we like, we try to distill things down to the headline. So, if there’s an interview going on we’re looking for the soundbite moment, the moment the becomes the headline that reduces all of the nuance of the conversation down to the headline, because our culture is moving so fast, information is so available. It’s flying so fast at us that that’s kind of what we can handle the headlines. It’s just that the headlines aren’t the story. They’re the headline. And so, when we’re just paying attention to the headlines, or the talking heads who are not looking at the story but are trying to interpret the headlines, then it’s super easy for people to get destroyed in the mix, because nobody’s life is a headline. I mean what if somebody put a headline on your life today with film at 11 like, story at 11. You’d be like what are we talk, wait a minute, what’s the headline, what…what are we talking about here. And what if the headline were to put you in a bad light and you’re like that’s not the story. That’s not how that happened, that’s not who I am. But when people simply consume headlines, they simply consume people’s lives at the same time. They could be like cool, what does that got to do the Bible? What we watched today in the Gospel of Luke was the attempt to reduce…reduce Jesus into a headline or a soundbite. So, chapter 20 of the Gospel of Luke, which we read today, begins that Jesus’s teaching the temple courts. He’s in Jerusalem, He’s doing what He said to do, preaching the good news. And the religious authorities, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders approached Jesus with a question. By what authority are you doing these things, who gave you this authority? It’s this kind of gotcha question where there’s gonna be no good answer and it’s going to get turned into a soundbite that puts Jesus in a bad light, and He knows what they’re doing. And so, He’s like, look, let me ask you a question that will reveal for all of us what’s really going on here, because you’re trying to put me in a position where there is no answer. So, He asked them, what about John? Was John’s baptism from heaven or did he make it up? Is it a human thing? He put them in the position they were trying to put Him in, and as the Gospel of Luke tells us, they have to go and discuss this among themselves because now they realize there is no answer for them to give. He’s put them in the same position. And so, they have to come back and ultimately say, we don’t know. And why did they say that? Because if they say he was from heaven, Jesus will ask why didn’t you believe him. And if they say he made it all up, its of human origin, then the people will be angry. They think the people will stone us. I’m quoting from Luke, “the people will stone us, because they’re persuaded that John was a prophet.” And so, they say we don’t know. And so, Jesus says, great no answer that I would’ve given you would have given you the answer. I’m not giving you an answer. But he actually did give them an answer by immediately turning as a rabbi into a parable about a man who planted a vineyard and rented it to some farmers and went away for a long time. And in this parable, the man who planted the vineyard is God, and the tenants are the religious leaders, the scribes and Pharisees and teachers of the law, and the elders. And so, the man, God plants a vineyard and puts it in the charge of tenants. And when it’s time for the harvest, he sends for the share of the harvest. And with escalating violence they continue to throw out those who have come to collect on behalf of the master. The ones that are sent to collect, represent the prophetic voices that were sent over and over, over many generations, to God’s people. So, these mouthpieces, these voices, these people carrying the authority of the master to come and deliver a message and collect, are abused and thrown out as the prophets were. And then the owner of the vineyard. So, God said, what shall I do? I will send my son, whom I love, perhaps they will respect him, but when the tenants, right, the religious leaders saw him, they talked the matter over. This is the heir, they said, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours. So, they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Which is a prophetic word about what is about to happen. It’s like Jesus is telling the story that is about to happen. And they have this opportunity to recognize what’s about to happen and choose a different path. But that’s not what happens, they kill Jesus. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them, Jesus asks? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. The whole parable is to allow the people, the religious leaders, who know what He’s saying, to have this moment, this opportunity, this clarity before they continue forward. And as the Gospel of Luke tells us, the teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest Him immediately, because He knew, because they knew He had spoken this parable against them. But they were afraid of the people. So, rather than arresting Him, because they were afraid of the people, they tried to soundbite Him again and catch Him again. So, I quote from the Gospel of Luke, “keeping a close watch on Him, they sent spies who pretended to be sincere.” They hoped to catch Jesus in something He said, so that they might hand him over to the power and authority of the governor. And so, they sent people to ask Jesus questions about taxes, something they could get Jesus in trouble with the Romans. Jesus knows again what’s going on and brilliantly answers them. The question is do we pay taxes to Caesar or not. Jesus says show me a denarius, like, show me some money. Whose image is on this money? Caesars, they replied. And so, He says, then give to Caesar what belong to Caesar and give to God what is God’s. That’s a soundbite all right, but not the soundbite they were looking for. Not the way that they were trying to reduce Jesus to headline, turn Him over to the Romans and get rid of Him. But if we zoom forward into our own culture today, the idea of being trapped by words and malicious things happening once the words are reduced down into soundbites or headlines, this happens all of the time. This happens at work, this happens at school, this happens at home. This happens on the news; this happens on the Internet. This happens all of the time where we’re like trying to trap each other and reduce the whole thing down into a morsel, when there’s a whole story. We have an example of this in our Savior. We saw how He handled this kind of situation, but He had nothing to hide. And so, much of the time this sound biting you’re trying to reduce things that is trying to flesh out what’s hidden and He had nothing to hide. And so, He was able to clearheadedly see what was going on, what was flying at Him, to see the motive, so that He knew how to respond. And we see, from these examples today, that His responses expose the motive. Jesus didn’t get mad and go on some kind of tirade and say something that He would regret and something that would trap Him. He didn’t resort to any of that kind of aggression. He just simply told the truth and exposed what was going on. We can be the same way, if we’ll slow down, if we’ll pay attention, if we won’t be entrapped by words, if we won’t try to set word traps for others. The problem is, the problem is we have a culture, a Christian culture and we participate in this kind of stuff in the same way that the religious culture at the time of Jesus was attempting to box Him in. Let’s pay attention to what’s going on in Luke here. It’s not the people that are upset with Jesus. It’s not the Romans that are upset with Jesus. It’s the people in religious control that are upset with Jesus. It’s this, this is all a religious people thing that is going on in the Gospel of Luke today. Highly educated, trained, superior like the elite. The people in Jerusalem at the temple. It’s they that are doing this to Jesus. Maybe we could consider how we stop doing this to each other because there’s more to anyone than some kind of headline about them.
Prayer:
Jesus, we invite You into that. That requires us to slow down and take a broader view and understand that humanity is much more complicated than soundbites and we are much more complicated than we can even understand about ourselves. And so, grace and mercy and love should pour into us, empathy should pour out from us, that we may be able to have eyes to see and ears to hear what’s really going on. So that we might, through the power of your Holy Spirit address what’s really going on instead of all of the superficial things. Come, Holy Spirit, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We pray, in the name of Jesus our Lord, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello, my DAB family, this is Mark Street from Sydney, Australia. Today is Thursday, the 13th of February and I’m just calling in for Show Me God’s Love. I heard you on this week’s community prayer. I just had a feeling, just to call in. Just to pray for you, Show Me God’s Love. I don’t know what it’s about, but I just want to pray for you. So, dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for Show Me God’s Love and his participation in this community. We love him very much, as You do, Father. I ask You to bless him in all things that he needs blessing in. Bless his family, his extended family and his life, Lord. Lord, restore anything to him that needs to be restored. Remove anything from his life that needs to be removed so that he and his extended family will feel Your love, more and more. In Your name, I pray. Amen. Love you family. Mark Street from Sydney, Australia. Bye.
Hi, my name is Becca in Bellingham. I am calling for prayers for myself and my whole family. My mom died last Monday morning and the whole family is just missing her and all 25 grandchildren are going to just have this hole in their life. And I’m just asking for prayers for God to surround us with His comfort and care. I have felt Jesus so near and I just pray that He would continue to be near us. And I thank Him for all the years that He did give us with our precious fierce loving sweet mother. Just asking you to lift us up in prayer. This is Becca in Bellingham. Thank you.
Good evening family. It’s Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. And this evening, I want to pray for all the pastors in the Daily Audio Bible family, including Pastor Brian, of course. Because Shepherding outside Seattle pastor called in and wanted prayers for himself and his small congregation. And as my friends and I were studying Salomon this week, Salomon recognized that he had an enormous group of people that he had to lead. And when it was asked what he wanted, he told God it was wisdom to care for the people. And so, I’m gonna pray this over our pastors. And I pray God and I thank you for the pastors You have given unto us who fill us with knowledge and understanding. Thank you that those who are placed over us, to feed us up would fear no more, nor are we dismayed or lacking in anyway. Thank You Father for watching over our pastors and their families, their marriages, their homes, their possessions, their congregation. For giving your angels charge over them to keep them in all their ways. May no evil befall them, and no plague come near dwelling. Thank you that they are intent in your words, they incline their ears to Your sayings, they do not let them deprive from their eyes. And they keep them in the midst of their hearts. Your word is life unto them and health to all their flesh. Oh, so I pray for them as they go forth, standing on your word and being nourished by Your Holy Spirit. So, as they shepherd the flock that You have …
Greetings, from Springfield, Missouri, fellow DABers, I’m calling in a prayer in response to the wife that called in for her husband and the group that went hiking and lost one of their hikers to a tragic fall. So, that I’m just calling on You right now, God, that You would come alongside each one of these men and their families. And especially the family of the lost man that God that You would come along and sit beside them and minister to them, God. That Your word says that You are close to the crushed in spirit and the broken hearts. So, God, I just pray that You make Yourself Holy, present with them, God. That they could almost reach out and touch You, feeling Your presence, Lord. And God, that You would be with this family, who lost their father, their husband. God, that You would be gracious and merciful to them, God. That they would have a community of believers surround them, minister to them, comfort them, and walk this jury of grief with them. God, that You are the great healer and merciful, compassionate Father, and they would see that in this time. We thank you Jesus, that You’re a personal, up-close God, that cares deeply for us.
Hey family, how are you? It’s Prodigal returning. Anyway, I’ve been with Brian and you guys for 18 years or whatever and just for some reason, just tried some other things. They were good, the Chosen and worked with some other good people but got very crushed financially, physically. Three bad surgeries didn’t work. So, I want to get out my point. As I was driving yesterday, and I, all of a sudden, Blind Tony’s poem on the 14th came on. Which was exactly the most convicting, perfect thing I could ever need. And…and I want to thank you Blind Tony, I really do. I’ve listened to you from the beginning, bro. And then a few of you who know my story, I was on the edge a long, long time ago. And was gonna take myself out and I’m sitting there, just ready to do it, guns in my hand, in my lap, and all of a sudden, the Daily Audio Bible comes on and there’s Brian. And so, God wants me to do something. I just pray, I need your prayers to help me figure it out. Because I am physically broken, spiritually broken, financially destroyed, and that’s not important, I need to get back and walk with Him. We used to walk on the beach every morning, Jesus and I. Somehow, I lost that. I’m back, I’m coming back. And I hope to be able to pitch in and add to the light here. So, God bless you all. Know I pray for you, I’ve been praying for you guys forever. So, I’m back. God Bless you. Prodigal out.